Bears News: Gervon Dexter ready for breakout under Dennis Allen

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 23 hours ago

CHICAGO - Back in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears used the No. 53 overall pick to select defensive lineman Gervon Dexter out of Florida. While Dexter certainly improved from his first year to his second, he seems poised to make a big jump in his third season.

Last season, the defense faced significant pressure due to the team's struggles on offense. Chicago’s offense is expected to be much improved this season although they also made some moves to make the defensive line better.

One such move was signing interior defensive lineman Grady Jarrett, who will be going into his eleventh season.

“Grady, his effort is the number one thing. The way he finishes, the way he flies around and get to the quarterback. But, he has a lot of moves in his toolbox that (some) d-tackles just go straight to power or they do this. Grady, he does both. So, he has a variety of different things that he can do,” Dexter said. “Grady is one of those guys, as well as (edge rusher) Montez (Sweat). It’s crazy that I’m playing with both of them now. Growing up, middle school (and) high school, I watched a lot of d-linemen and I would turn on some of those type of guys tape before high school games. So, I knew a lot about Grady.”

Sweat is also one of the premier players in the league and has always been the type to lead by example. For the second straight season, Sweat led the team in sacks. Dexter was second on the Bears in sacks last season with five. However, four of those came in the first five games of the season.

That is why, despite Dexter also stepping into a leadership role this season, he is also aware that he needs to be more consistent.

“Being more consistent, finishing. Just staying consistent is the next step for me … There’s different ways of leading. For me, when I watch Montez, he’s leading in that way. I’m following him. So, there’s different types of leaders. We have, obviously, now we got Grady Jarrett who can lead by example and vocally. So, I think a defensive line definitely needs a guy that can step up and let you know,” Dexter said. “I think I’m learning to be a leader. I would say just growing up, going into year three. I played a little ball, so just taking that next step into doing some of those things and trying to step up and be the guy.”

This season will mark the first time in Dexter’s young career he has experienced a change in who is calling the defensive plays. Dennis Allen has taken over as the new defensive coordinator and will be calling all of the defensive plays. Coach Allen’s defenses have consistently been some of the best in the league.

However, Dexter will have to step up from his performance last season if that is going to happen this year.

“Coach Allen’s defense, (he) throws in a lot of different fronts, a lot of different ways to get after the quarterback. So, I think the type of guy I am, I can play in a lot of those different fronts,” Dexter said. “So, just being in it and he’ll move guys around. He’ll switch it up on the offense. It’ll be good for not only me, but everybody on the defensive line and on this defense.”